Follow your gut, it works!

We all have to make decisions about different things all the time, big decisions, small decisions and everything in between. In most cases, most of us do some research, look at the data, find facts, test hypothesis, ask others for opinions, do the numbers, etc… to help us make these decisions, it seems as our gut feeling is not enough.

Many people will probably tell you that making decisions based on research, data and other people’s opinions is a good thing because it’s safe, I disagree. If you want to be successful, whether at finding a job, building a company, managing a team, or whatever, you do have to take risks and go with your gut feeling more often that you feel comfortable with. You see, trusting your gut feelings often lead you to many fulfilling outcomes if you listen to them and are ready to take action.

Many successful people agree that intuition / gut feeling have been a key part of their success. Smart decisions are not based on reason alone.

“Don’t let the noise of other people drown out your inner voice. And most importantly, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.” advises Steve Jobs, Apple Computer CEO.

“Experience taught me a few things. One is to listen to your gut, no matter how good something sounds on paper.” advises Donald Trump.

In my experience I have made many intuitive gut decisions, when this happens I get that feeling in me and it just feels right, there is that excitement and energy, and when I feel it, I know I am onto something good.

A good example of this is when I met my wife, 14 years ago. We met and two months later we got married, yes, after only two months! crazy right? We both felt it was the right thing to do. Many of our friends and family thought we were crazy and some of them actually tried to stop us from getting married by talking to us and trying to convince us it wasn’t the right thing – because we were young, we didn’t really know each other, blah, blah and blah…
Both my wife and I followed our gut and got married, we have been happily married for 14 years now – we decided to take the risk and it worked out for us! good.

Each of us posses the inherit ability to tap into our intuition, our wisdom. We all have gut-instincts and by listening to what your gut is telling you and then doing it you’ll be better off.

If you are a CEO, a manager or someone in charge of people this is important to you as well. Managers that cultivate open team communication should also encourage their team members to “speak from the gut”. Encouraging employees to express their feelings is very important, event if they can’t be immediately backed by arguments. This, in my opinion, creates an environment where people aren’t afraid about expressing their feelings. And this is good because you’ll learn more about your employees than you ever imagined. Your team will be able to tackle any type of problem it might be confronted with if everyone has a clear understanding about the path ahead, and this can be achieved if everyone acknowledges and validates their gut feelings by communicating and sharing the truth with others on where they are at and what they are going through. It works!

Albert Einstein said “The only real valuable thing is intuition” and “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honours the servant and has forgotten the gift.”

Bottom line is, follow your gut, it knows what’s best for you!

What your thoughts on this? do you agree that following your gut is better than making decisions by reason alone? Leave your comment below.

7 thoughts on “Follow your gut, it works!”

I also suggest that all we geeks read the book “ReWork” by Jason Fried (Ruby on Rails fame) for similar gut theme and getting things done. All the planning and paperwork and meetings in the world will not tell you what needs to be done. rgc

I agree, you should go with your gut, but with these bad times most of us just w ant to run away right now. All the articles, books, TV shows are all doomsday that times are going to get real rough in the next year or 2. What to believe? I makes you want to scream.